Embers
by yume girl 91
Summary: Once a promising student at Luke's Jedi Academy, Rey was abandoned on Jakku for reasons unknown to most. Years later, when she is discovered by the First Order, Rey begins to set in motion her revenge against the man who destroyed her life. AU Reylo


The moon illuminated a scene of carnage. Spilled blood soaked into the hungry ground. Bits and pieces of bodies lay scattered through the tall grass. She advanced through her followers, her hood drawn low over her face. Someone howled like a wounded animal, shattering the night air.

She looked past the remaining fighters to the glow of pale blue, the shade of his prominent nose and full lips brought into sharp focus. But, it was his eyes that wounded her the most. Betrayal swam in the brown irises, a failure of understanding had happened between them. Rey felt the fatal rupture of trust as Ben charged at her, easily giving into rage.

"Careful, Jedi, rage is an emotion of the Dark Side." She had felt calm like the surface of a black mirror. Blocking and expecting his next swing, she ducked low, feeling the ground erupt, sizzling from the contact of bare earth with his light saber.

"It doesn't have to be this way." Ben reared up, slicing through her trailing cloak. The fabric wafted away, smoldering on the edges. Rey danced elusively out of his grasp, aware the last youngling had been silenced with a blow to the throat. The blood has lashed the air inches away from them. But, his focus, his anger was directed solely at her. Rey could feel the vibrations in the Force, the dark stain of his energy colliding with hers. Ben drew up close to her, their blades clashed in a hail of sparks.

He was a failure at protecting those dear to him.

The mocking words remained on her tongue. It was over - finally it was going to end. Skywalker's last student was going to fall to her hands. Rey felt their blades curving up and out in remembered motion.

 _"Why?"_ Ben whispered his deep voice resonant in her mind. He hadn't spoken. The entity that was the _Force_ suddenly mirrored their minds together.

 _"Why?"_

 _"I-"_

She had felt at a sudden loss to explain herself. The calmness of mind had fled leaving the trembling body of a teenage girl. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Skywalker, the face of the man she sought to destroy. Hatred arose within her, blackness deeper than the night and colder than the darkest abyss of the ocean. Ben felt the taint infect his mind, but pressed on.

 _"Rey."_

Skywalker was trying to reach them.

 _"Rey, please."_ The face of the scared boy hovered before her as he powered off his light saber. The fear was fleeting and in its place, calmness. Ben extended his hand between them, gesturing with his fingertips to come.

 _"Come back to me."_

* * *

Phasma extended her hand.

Smoke still arose from the lethal blaster bolts punching holes into the circuitry and mesh wall surrounding the training room. Rey grasped it hard, pulling herself up. The chrome helmet of the troop leader almost reflected her face. The black visor hid Phasma's blue eyes.

"I was…dreaming." Rey murmured. It was almost like a dream, except it wasn't. It was like viewing someone 's memories from someone who had been there. She could see still the smoke rising from the temple, the conflagration burning away some of her most happiest memories, stripping everything bare into fallen embers.

The feeling had been _Ben's._

 _Ben._

"Your reflexes were subpar today. Are you sure your health regimen doesn't need changing?" Phasma's voice modulator provided clipped tones. Rey's eyes flickered askance. She was disturbed in mind. She hadn't dreamed of the temple's destruction for years. "No, never mind that. I'm starved." She swiped her free hand out, summoning the light saber to her belt.

Phasma squeezed her hand, a smile in her voice. "You're always hungry, little scavenger."

* * *

They had been so close, they could've touched.

Ben Solo awoke in the darkness of his bed. The steady hum of the Falcon's engines had lulled him to sleep after a bout with the blaster droid. Lying immobile for minutes, he struggled to compile a cogent recollection of his dream. There had been the temple, the white glow of domed stone rising beneath the moon. The huts that served as student dormitories some distance away. In the dream, something had awoken him, the distant crack of spacecraft approaching from hyperspace. In the darkness, he had stumbled out into chaos.

Students in their flowing night shirts and half-tied robes were dueling with dark-cloaked figures in the long grasses. Ben had ignited his light saber, the bright crackling beam a pale blue. The weapon had once been his grandfather's when he had been a Jedi before the darkness of the Sith had corrupted Anakin Skywalker's mind. Ben had looked around uncertain who to rush and aid. There were too many of them, the beasts, with their swirling cloaks and vivid red light sabers. The stench of dark energy, of tainted _Force_ , flowed in the night air. Ben saw one of the youngling girls cut down. His sudden roar of fury momentarily drew the attention of the farthest hooded figure who had heretofore, stood back, watching.

The fighters had parted like a dark sea for her with a gesture. He glimpsed the upraised hand, the slender form belonging to one person. Before her hood had fallen, Ben had known with a plummeting sensation in his gut, who he was facing.

"Rey." The whisper of her name in the recycled air of his father's ship, provoked a pang of loss and memory. Hunching over to slide out from the bunk, he ran his hands through his wavy black hair, glancing to the window opposite. The streaks of stars went past as the Falcon traveled through the hyperspace channel. In the cockpit, he found Chewie studying a map of their set course.

"How long until we reach -"

Chewie's shaggy brown head lifted, a stream of grunts told him all he needed to know.

"Right…couldn't sleep. Why don't you rest?" He straddled the chair he had seen his father sitting in for years. Always turning around with a grin on his face and a snide comment. Chewie shrugged, rising with a grunted goodnight. Ben said nothing, wrapped in his own thoughts.

Two years ago, he had watched Han Solo die during the attack on the Hosnian System. No one had seen it coming, only whispers persisted of the First Order's planet killer, a shadowed remnant of the Empire's Death Star technology. Ben had felt the searing wound created in the _Force_ when millions of souls had been obliterated from existence. He hadn't wanted to believe in the rise of darkness, the return of the galaxy's oppression. Leia, his mother, had warned him to stay hidden. Rumors had reached the Resistance's spy network, of the First Order's search and destruction tactics for Force sensitives.

"They think you're long dead." Leia had said over their last communication. "No one knows differently here."

"But, not to you." He had smiled a little at her small holographic image. "Father would approve I think of delivery runs in the Outer Rim."

Leia had fallen silent at the mention of Han. She had styled her hair differently from the images on his datapad. She wore the elegant senatorial dresses and jewelry from her time in office. Ben had always loved her more than his father, because of her understanding of the _Force_. His singular disappointment being her lack of Jedi training when her sensitivity to the _Force_ had made her prime candidate for the role.

"Ben, I almost lost you once. Don't underestimate our enemy." She had looked sternly at him then, every inch a commander of a fleet.

 _She didn't kill me_ , he had almost said in retort. The defensive edge in his tone when he had ended the call had worried his mother. "I can take care of myself. I have, after all these years." He could see it in her expression, in the compress of her lips. _No._ Not even his mother had learned the full truth of that night.

Absently, he traced the scar bisecting the left side of his face. The uneven edge of the cut had healed with time, but the scar remained as potent as physical memory.

* * *

 _Scavenger._ The nickname had stuck through the rigid training imposed by the First Order's Stormtrooper Training program. Brendol Hux had been the one to discover her on the hell hole of Jakku, enslaved by Unkar Plutt. Hux had bought the lot of children, dirty-faced urchins clad in rags to the polished black metal and Durasteel halls of the Star Destroyer for a price. Rey had always been the fastest, the smartest of the ragtag group of pick-pockets who ran through the marketplace of Jakku's mud town with junkers who cursed at them.

Until Brendol had taken them on his shuttle, she had forgotten the galaxy existed. It was all too easy to imagine the legends passed down were myth. The Maker, if he existed to the faithful, cared nothing for the orphans of Jakku. Until that day, she had forgotten what it was like to eat something other than powdered bread.

In her private rooms, Phasma sat across from her. She had removed her helmet as was custom, releasing her pale blonde hair from its confining net. They had an unusual truce between them…a rare accord Rey knew from Phasma having come from a desecrated world. Armitage had let as much slip even going so far as to warn her that whoever became close to Phasma eventually died. She had taken the warning in stride. Phasma was a skilled warrior who could match Rey in physical combat.

They sparred often whenever Phasma's duties hadn't taken her far from the Finalizer.

Vaguely, Rey remembered Cardinal, her first teacher in the Stormtrooper program, the one who had discovered her Force sensitivity albeit unwittingly. She absently bit into a piece of fruit, the juice warm and sweet exploding in her mouth.

Without the voice modulator, Phasma's voice was smooth and cold, her accent perfectly clipped resembled Brendol's. "You seem distracted as of late. Is something bothering you?"

Her eyes widened momentarily, then she shrugged her shoulders. She had left on the form-fitting black body suit and ankle boots. The black and silver design of the Star Destroyer bled through into her sitting room with its chrome table and hard asymmetrical chairs. Rey uncrossed her ankles, finding it hard to sit still. She thought best when it motion, pacing circles around her quarters. Fingers closing over the piece of fruit, she dropped it onto the plate, wiping her sticky fingers on a napkin.

She had been so close to him in the dream, the remnant of it unbalanced the fragile peace in her mind. Rey resisted her desire to reach out through the _Force_. They could always find each other back then, whether in the temple practicing meditation, or in the field practicing with blaster droids.

A flash of her younger self beneath a blue sky with someone else went through her head.

"I've spent so long running away from my past that I'm beginning to wonder if it's catching up to me." Rey's gaze dropped to her hand, the tracery of scars in her palm, the bruises she had begun to feel on her back beneath her clothing. She had missed one shot and the next had knocked her off balance. On the training floor, Phasma was as ruthless as on the battlefield.

Phasma finished her caf. "Didn't I tell you once? Destroy it. Leave nothing from your past alive. That is the only way to keep moving forward."

"I have," she mildly protested. "The academy…the worlds where the oppressed have been liberated by the First Order. I watched the Hosnian System destroyed. I've left Jakku far behind me." Despite her words, Rey's mind stubbornly returned to the Jedi academy. For an instant, she could feel the hot metal of the light saber's hilt in her grasp. She remembered his outstretched hand, the pleading look in his eyes. Then, the ascending arc of her light saber splitting flesh. It was the same image, Rey projected every night, the replay of his death.

Phasma picked up her helmet, rubbing a spot off the polished surface with her fingertips. The comm unit attached to her suit started blinking red. "See you around, kid."

* * *

The Falcon exited Hyperspace lanes; Ben had fallen into a light doze, his hands folded in his lap. Behind his eyelids, images surfaced, memories of his mother on Coruscant. Glittering political galas, the disapproving face of his father leaving for the podraces. Luke was there sometimes visiting, dutifully stopping from his sojourn to other worlds. Luke was tireless in his quest for _Force_ sensitives, the best, the strongest with the _Force_ went under his tutelage. In time, Ben had gone with him, bidding the cosmopolitan metropolis of Coruscant goodbye for adventure.

On the long journeys through hyperspace lanes, Luke had told him stories of the rebellion, heroism and courage. He had spoken of the Jedi Order, their tenets, and their foe, the Sith. The balance was maintained by the balance of light and darkness.

"Why was it wrong for the Jedi to fall in love?" The youngling he had been, had always harbored a secret wish for his mother to wield a light saber, to understand the _Force_ the way he did. Luke who had maintained the lifestyle of an ascetic, closely following the Jedi religion, had no answers for him. That had been alright until the day they visited the site of the last major battle against the Empire.

On the desert planet of Jakku, they found her. The child of junkers, sunburnt, hazel-eyed. She was half-wild, starved, her _Force_ signature was lovely. The last was something he felt when he looked into her eyes. Luke had taken one look at her parents and begun to walk away. Ben couldn't have said it was in disgust so much as a glance at the girl sitting sullenly in the corner of the rubbish heap.

"Why?" He had asked, unable to get the face of the girl out of his mind.

"There are others…" Luke replied, seemingly distracted. His lined face and light brown hair spoke of his age. The knowledge was unspoken that one day, he would turn over the duties of training to his first apprentice. Ben hesitated beside their land speeder. "I sensed the Force was strong with her."

"There are others, Ben."

 _No._ He couldn't put his finger on it, but something… _that girl_ …, "I think she should come with us."

His uncle's blue-eyed gaze slid over to him. The look was somewhat cold. "The girl is imbalanced, Ben. Leave it be."

He straightened. He was tall for his age, form stocky, muscles beginning to develop from training with blaster droids on their cruiser. "You said the same thing about me. I haven't turned."

Their eyes met and he continued. "I won't, neither will she. Trust in the power of the light, uncle." Luke had trusted his better judgment, he had returned to the hovel of sand and grit where the junkers hoarded scrap metal. He had bargained with them for twelve minutes mostly the girl's parents holding out for more money. The entire time, the girl hadn't moved from where they had sent her out. She sat on the ground, silent, her eyes flickering to him - only her eyes.

Ben could only take the silence so long.

"What's your name?"

She had toyed with the three hair buns running in a row along the back of her head. "Rey." She said finally.

No last name? Ben had wondered if he should introduce himself. "I'm Ben Solo, Luke Skywalker's nephew. My parents are heroes of the Rebellion." He felt proud saying it. The girl blinked slowly, her hand falling to her side. Designs traced themselves into desert sand, manipulated by her fingertips.

Still, she said nothing.

"Have you always been here? Haven't you wondered what lies beyond this trash heap?"

"Mama and papa are here." Rey murmured, "they're all I need."

Ben was going to say more, but his uncle reappeared. "Alright, let's go." He sent a look to him and then to the girl. He knew what that look meant. Luke was giving him a challenge. Ben had asked for the girl and Luke was putting her under his care.

"Do you have anything you would like to take?" He asked out of kindness, assuming she had few possessions. The other younglings could be cruel to others their own age. "Rey?"

The girl got to her feet, glancing at his uncle then back to him. She backed up warily and ran for the overhang of corrugated metal. He stopped himself from going after her for a few seconds, wondering how it would've felt if Leia hadn't wanted him. Ben heard the sound of Luke's footsteps in the sand.

"I'll be waiting." Luke called over his shoulder.

For a moment, he wondered if he had done the right thing. Then, he heard the sound of a hand striking flesh. He ran forward, ducking beneath the sagging metal roof. In the dimness, he made out the figure of the girl sobbing at the woman's feet. Rey's father lay slumped against the wall, playing with an ancient datapad.

"Stupid girl!"

He saw her hand descend; fury sparked from deep within like someone had taken a lit match to his soul. Ben gestured as if he was shooing away an insect. The effect was instantaneous, the woman crashed against the opposite wall. She uttered a low moan and collapsed into a crumpled heap.

"Mama!" Rey cried out.

"C'mon," he said roughly, grabbing her by the arm. The child struggled against him, her tear-streaked face reddened. She fought him a few times, ineffectually punching and kicking him. More annoyed than hurt, Ben scooped her up in his arms and hurried to the speeder. As he moved, he looked down at his gloves, the ones he had worn while driving the speeder through the inhospitable spit of a planet. The girl had likely never had any sort of care shown to her, nothing of familial love except for her peculiar hairstyle.

Ben shifted her in his grasp, removing the glove from his left hand, then he began stroking her back, sending soothing emanations from the _Force_ into her. Leia had done similar to him when he was small and upset. Rey had stiffened from the contact; he could feel the sharpness of her tiny body, the effects of malnourishment. The moment his hand touched the nape of her neck, she calmed and he felt something he could never begin to describe to Luke.

Completeness.

 _"Rey."_

He could hear his own voice echoing in the space between them. A slight pressure on his eardrums discarded the whispering sound of sand blowing across the dunes.

 _"Where?"_ Her lips didn't move.

He looked into her eyes, projecting an image of the beautiful world where the academy was _. "Somewhere safe."_

Ben shifted in his seat, the face of the tiny trusting girl fading. Chewie's heavy steps echoed up the gangway. Ben sat upright, rubbing at his face. "Sorry, guess I fell asleep."

A string of grunts followed by a gentle growl.

"I know, I know. You want to go where- oh, no. Not Takodana. Maz doesn't like me." Ben thought of the lush green world. Kanata was an old friend of his father's known to smugglers and bounty hunters alike. She had never disapproved exactly of him, but she didn't like him, always said he had too much of his mother's heart and not enough of his father's sense. Ben used to think she meant _charm_.

"I'd prefer Canto Bight."

Chewie took the copilot's seat, taking the ship out of autopilot, grunting as he did so.

"A vacation…? But, not there. Right." Ben rolled his eyes. Chewie had as much respect for Arms dealers as gamblers which was somewhat hypocritical since the Resistance dealt with those same dealers from Canto Bight. "Maybe, after we unload these goods in the worst hive of scum and villainy in the galaxy."

Chewie's growl sounded a lot like agreement.

* * *

Rey stepped from the glass-walled shower, shivering slightly in the warm air funneled into her rooms. She had never forgotten what a luxury it was to have so much water at her disposal. It felt delightfully sinful to waste so much just letting the perfectly temperature controlled sheets cascade over her slim body. As she toweled her hair dry, her eye fell on the comm beside her bed.

"What is it?" She asked, tapping accept.

A coolly modulated voice from an officer on the bridge came through. Trying to put a face to the voice, she thought it might be Mitaka, an officer under Hux's command.

"Supreme Leader Snoke is requesting your presence aboard his flagship."

Snoke never requested unless…

For a heartbeat, Rey considered the possibilities. She had felt a slight tug but nothing else. They had always communed through the _Force_ before.

"Very well, prepare my shuttle."

She moved through the next few minutes of preparation with the illusion of purpose in her step. She dressed in her customary sleeveless tunic and leggings, arm wrappings strapped to the shoulder exposed silvers of skin. Over which, she selected a dark cloak of fine silken material. Her light saber was last. Rey looked down at the slim cylindrical handle, igniting it with a crackling whoosh of pure energy. The blade glowed a dark almost black hue, sparks flew from it, rainbows of light singeing the carpeting. She had found the kyber crystal locked away on Dantooine.

The old Jedi Academy had still held mystery for her, she had marveled at the destroyed murals, the crumbling pigmentation of stone depicting the balance, the symbol of the Jedi in the moldering archive. The crystal had belonged to an ancient Jedi Master, whose power had faded into the annals of lore. Her singular disappointment was the fractured crystal producing an unstable blade. Rey switched the blade off, clipping the saber to her belt.

The Supreme Leader was waiting and wouldn't wait for long.

Once on her shuttle, she went through pre-launch procedures. Through the cockpit window, she glimpsed Phasma's chrome armor leading a line of white armored troops across the hangar; she would miss their sparring and occasional meals together. A few black suited TIE pilots hung around conversing with their counterparts, the black and silver BB-9e models tagged along with stern-faced officers. Rey leaned back into her seat, her eyes sliding to the dark expanse of space glittering with the lights of a million stars. Her personal droid BB-8, a one of a kind model of the BB series, rolled up behind her seat, chirruping in binary.

"Better strap in." She said, smirking at the droid's predictable response. BB-8 bumped her seat, then went rolling backward as the Lambda-class shuttle lifted off the hangar floor. Rey punched it, sending the ship flying out into open space. Mitaka had already sent the coordinates to her ship's computer. Rey glanced over the map of stars, setting the ship into Hyperdrive. They were going to rendezvous over Starkiller Base she noticed. Part of the larger fleet had already congregated there.

A string of blips and whistles that sounded suspiciously like curses came from BB-8. Rey felt the shuttle powering up to make the jump, her stomach tightening in anticipation. "I told you so," she muttered, closing her eyes. The ship jumped forward disappearing into a blur of space.

She still remembered her first jump into light speed. The feeling of pure terror, pure adrenaline coursing through her veins and _trust_ when Ben Solo let her sit in the cockpit of the cruiser with him to watch them make the jump. There had been nothing like it. Rey had lost interest in her blank featured dolls with string bits of chaff for hair once she had discovered an old flight simulator her parents had salvaged.

She had never told anyone her dreams of space flight before, but he had known. He had seen into her secret heart, into her mind. Rey should've been distrusting, angry that he had hurt mama…but mama had hurt her. Mama hadn't made her feel better, Ben had. He had given her water from a canteen, given her bits of food in the land speeder. She had eaten more in their cruiser, a white and orange painted thing that had a few dents, scuffed windows. Her child self had adored the cruiser so much so that she had purchased BB-8 from a junk dealer who claimed the droid had belonged to an X-Wing pilot.

Rey left her seat briefly to pick up the spherical droid in her arms, carrying BB-8 to the copilot's seat. As she secured the droid in, she thought fleetingly of R2D2. The blue and white astromech had rolled out to meet the cruiser when they had landed on the world the academy had been built on. A lingering sense of shame clouded her memories, she had been so naïve, so trusting when they had walked out into the world of blue skies, such greenery of the trees and peaceful lake of blue. In the distance, the academy's marble sparkled in the sunlight. Rey had seen others, small of stature, different species approaching. They were all clad in brown robes with white tunics and loose pants. Ben hadn't been able to find anything on the cruiser that would fit her. Suddenly overwhelmed by shame at her appearance, Rey ducked behind him.

"Take her to the tailor." Skywalker had said, turning to his students. Rey heard the excited chatter, the blips of R2D2 greeting the man. She had tried to puzzle out the relationship between this man and Ben. Having had no other relatives other than her parents, she had tried to see a resemblance between them. Ben was dark-haired, with dark eyes and pale skin. His face was long and oval with features set into a face which couldn't be called handsome while Skywalker was fairer, light brown hair clipped short, blue eyes and bearded. He wore white robes over tan trousers and soft leatheris boots.

Ben had guided her forward, shielding her from sight mostly with his body. Rey almost thought he was ashamed of her, but the feeling was fleeting. He looked at her when they had traveled some distance closer to another cluster of buildings she had barely noticed. These were small thatched huts arranged in a formation similar to the mud houses on her home planet.

 _"You were uneasy."_ He spoke in her mind. _"I could feel it."_

 _"Yes."_ She agreed, standing a little taller. He wasn't ashamed of her at least. _"What is this place?"_

 _"A training temple for the future Jedi Order."_ Ben said without his lips moving, _"uncle Luke is a Jedi Master and I am his first apprentice. Someday, I'll be a Jedi Knight."_ A glance to her which Rey met with less shyness. _"Someday you will be too."_

 _"What are the Jedi?"_ The word seemed almost mystical, too wonderful to comprehend. Rey vaguely remembered an old datapad that had mentioned stories, almost like fairy tales of the Jedi and their deeds during the old Republic.

 _"They were peace keepers, upholders of the light."_ Ben explained gently, he had slowed their walking pace and Rey leaned closer to him, trying to match his steps. _"They were destroyed once, but you'll learn more about that later on."_ The promise in his eyes heartened her.

BB-8's questioning chirp took her from her thoughts. Rey scratched the droid's faded orange circular paint on its sides. "I'm fine." She straightened from her crouch. The stream of hyperspace went past the cockpit window, she had always thought it was beautiful.

"I'll be in the back," she said, "alert me when we reach Starkiller."

* * *

Ben watched the off-loading of goods, ore, mechanized parts. Chewie was still hustling with the buyer, a greasy-looking fellow who had made the offhand comment that he was surprised that piece of junk could still fly. Ben privately agreed. He had never shared the fondness for the Falcon the way his mother had or the love Chewie showed when the wookie performed routine maintenance

The Falcon made him think of Han Solo and all the conflicting feelings he had toward him. Briefly, he considered going for a drink in the cantina, but that was a sure way of inviting trouble. Leia had put the wookie in charge of him. He didn't want to hear it later. Ben glanced around then started out for the mud streets of Tatooine. A few older model land speeders cruised slowly, disturbing occasional passersby. He had heard the place hadn't changed much from the days of Luke's youth.

Spotting an old junkyard near the fringes, he ducked through an opening in the gate, glancing over the goods. Remnants of an AT-AT walker's massive legs propped up sheet metal. Ben walked around the maze of old rusting parts, catching a glimpse of the dual bladed wings of a fighter craft beneath a dusty sheet.

It was a downed X-Wing still with its distinctive stripes and laser cannons filled with sand. Ben brushed a hand over the metal, thinking of the fleet of fighters under his mother's command. He had wanted to be a pilot in the Resistance, longed for the openness of the galaxy. But, there had always been whispers.

People were afraid of him. They followed Leia's cause, but were wary of the Jedi and their tricks. No one had forgotten the legacy of Darth Vader, his true grandfather, not Bail Organa.

"It's better this way." Leia had said, sending him off with Chewbacca in the Falcon. The old Resistance base had teemed with life, yet he could still sense the underlying tension whenever he walked into a room. Their eyes would dart toward his light saber clipped to his belt. At first, he had refused to be angered by their foolishness when had it gotten to be too much? He wondered. Was it Luke's disappearance? Luke's refusal to begin the academy anew after the slaughter?

His face began to hurt, the pain phantom-like resurfacing from memory. He circled back around the X-Wing. Luke had one similar in the hangar not far from the temple. Whenever his lessons were done, Ben would take the X-Wing out for a spin with R2D2 accompanying him. He remembered the feel of the craft shuddering to life. "Let's go, Artoo!" He used to shout, jumping into the cockpit. The X-Wing remained as a symbol of Luke's old life. The exterior was battered due to age and he liked to think, dogfights that his uncle had won.

He would circle the skies, occasionally performing rotating belly-flips, pretending to fire at enemy targets. On that particular day, his heart wasn't into it. Ben sat in the cockpit of the fighter, never leaving the hangar. His mind had been on Luke's words during the previous evening's dinner. Luke had spoken of the eventuality of his graduation, his status as a Knight of the Order. Ben had seen some envy, some happiness and hope in the hearts of the students. But, _Rey_...Rey had gotten up from the table and walked out. That had never happened before. She had never left her dinner behind.

Gradually, he surfaced from his thoughts, surprised to hear the younglings nearby. They should've been practicing their meditation, he thought, climbing out slowly. R2D2's head swiveled to the left, indicating the left side.

Ben lifted his finger to his lips.

"Where are you from?" He imagined them sitting in a circle, getting grass stains on their knees.

"Bespin." Said one girl. The voice was familiar. She had shown aptitude with herbology.

"What about you?"

"Me, I'm from Coruscant."

"And you?"

Silence followed.

"I'm from nowhere." Rey finally said.

"Hey, everyone's from somewhere."

"J-Jakku."

Laughter followed on the heels of her admission.

"That _is_ nowhere. So what's it like, _Rey from Nowhere_ , coming from such a trash heap?"

He imagined her face, the hurt in her eyes. "Break it up, you all should be meditating!" Ben emerged into sight, striding across the sloping grounds. The younglings, three of them, jumped up and made clumsy bows, scattering from sight. Only Rey stayed behind. Her thin body had yet to fill out the length of the robes, her hair was tied back in a clumsy attempt at her three buns. Ben wanted to say something, but could think of nothing to say.

She had been there four months.

The name stuck through to the next year.

"Rey from Nowhere."

She showed the most promise, smarter than most younglings. He watched her absorb the lessons meant for older students, mimicking their styles with her wooden staff. She preferred the length of a polearm to the close quarters of a blade.

Ben watched her defeat the Twi'lek boy who had first called her _Rey from Nowhere_. He wasn't sure why he did it - stepping into the ring.

"Ben's going to fight." The younglings whispered. He was close to refining his forms one through five, but sometimes adapted his own physical motion for an entirely new fighting style.

"Rey."

He took the boy's discarded training sword. Luke stopped him. "Wait, let me. I've never sparred with her before." Ben acquiesced, returning to the sidelines to watch his uncle take her on.

She fought well.

Her footwork was fast, impressive for a desert child.

Luke nearly disarmed her with Soresu. Rey's lips trembled. When she fought, she fought with her soul. He could see it in her eyes, the need to prove herself, the desire to win.

 _"Rey."_ Ben paced nervously at the fringe of the students. He could feel the tension in her body. Rey switched into defense, driven back by Luke's skill. She uttered a loud cry when her quarter staff was smacked from her hands. What no one expected was for her hand to shoot out, the gesture eerily reminiscent of the times when Ben had sparred with Luke, summoning a weapon to his grasp. Ben expected her staff or another training sword from the wooden barrel by the door. Silver flashed from his belt.

His light saber flew in an arc across the room. Rey caught it, igniting it in a decisive rush. She turned sideways, her body pivoting into a defensive form then dropping into a crouch as she sprung forward. Luke evaded her first slash, calling, "that's enough!" The light saber arced over his head. Luke bent backward, ducking sharply. Ben caught his breath, astonished. She was…she was mimicking him. _She must've been watching me_ , he thought. Her spread-legged style, her elegant skating across the floor - it was like watching a mirror of his own movements in the forest, training alone.

"Enough!" Luke spun around on his heels, rising with a single gesture. The light saber flew from her hand as her feet left the floor, the blade deactivated with a click. Rey went skating backward out of the ring. Luke caught the light saber by the hilt; the other students backed away from her.

"You fought well." Luke looked down at the light saber in his hand. He seemed to consider it for a moment then tossed it to Ben, who caught the hilt, surprised. "I underestimated you." Luke walked over to her, bending to offer his hand. The gesture was symbolic of the respect between combatants. Rey blinked hair from her eyes, her loosened buns spilled brown strands into her freckled face. The passion from the heat of battle hadn't quite left her eyes. Hesitantly, she took Luke's hand.

Ben watched his uncle's face, almost missing the flash of emotion that went through his expression, the closest thing he could liken it to was fear. Luke released her hand suddenly and walked away.

"What was that about?" The students murmured. "Master Skywalker…?"

Ben took charge quickly, sending them for their mid-day meal. Rey remained where she had fallen, her eyes wary. "You're bleeding." He noticed the thin trickle of red spiraling from her brow, contusions marred her cheek and throat from the Twi'lek boy's attack.

"It's nothing." Rey mumbled, pushing herself up. Ben wrapped an arm around her shoulders, feeling her tremble. She averted her face so he wouldn't see the glisten of tears. "It's not nothing. I'll take you to the infirmary." As he spoke, the sounds of the temple faded and he could hear the echo of her breathing.

 _"I don't want to go."_

 _"Rey…,"_

 _"Did I do something wrong?"_

He could've named a number of things, but thought she was probably going to be harder on herself than anyone else. _"You know what you did wrong. Say it."_

Her lips trembled.

 _"I used your light saber."_

 _"No, there's more. Say it."_

"I attacked with the intent to harm." She mumbled aloud. "I'm…I'm sorry."

He blinked and the memory faded.

"Ah, a nice young man like you is with the Resistance?" Said someone from close by. He turned to face the owner of the junkyard, the beady black eyes and lizard-like skin hung off bone.

"No," he tensed slightly. That was all he needed was to be tracked to this dirt ball after Chewie had approved of a vacation. "I used to fly more when I was younger."

"Really, that's interesting. You looking to buy a star fighter?"

"No, no, I'd better get going."

"I'll even throw in an astromech." Wheedled the Rodian.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Ben muttered, taking long strides from the junkyard.

"The ramp to the Falcon was still open. He neared the old ship hesitantly, he could feel something was off. "Chewbacca?" He called, peering around the hangar. A few emptied crates of foodstuffs remained behind. Cautiously, he crossed the opening, reaching for his blaster. Ben kept to the curve of the wall, listening sharply. The sound of voices came from the cockpit.

"D'qar was compromised."

He caught his breath; it was his mother. Chewbacca uttered a mournful growl.

"We're relocating…in case of our satellites being monitored, I can't say where. As we speak, I've ordered an attack on Starkiller Base. Recent intelligence points to flaws in the reactor core's design. I only hope our fighters can give us enough time to evacuate."

Chewie shook his furry head disagreeing.

"I know sacrifices have to be made." Leia's voice caught. "Tell Ben, I love him-"

He moved forward quickly, getting a glimpse of the holo call form of his mother in her old senatorial elegance.

"And may the Force be with you both."

She disappeared and Chewbacca turned toward him, grunting a stream of wookese.

"How many fighters?"

Chewbacca affected a helpless gesture.

"How many?" But, he knew the answer already. "It's a suicide run." Ben turned and ran through the corridor of the Falcon. "Chewie, we have to help them! If the First Order doesn't take the bait-" Ben slowed at the ladder to the gun turret. The wookie's reply made him hesitate. "What? But…,"

 _We can't help them._

 _That can't be true._

"The entire Resistance fleet is doomed! Don't you understand that?!" Ben knew his feelings were selfish. _What did he care about the officers, the X-wing pilots, the bombers…he only had one thought of his mother._ "If you won't - then, I will." Once his mind had committed to the plan, he sent a ripple through the _Force_ , sending the wookie into a full body crash. Then, he started running.

* * *

Rey deflected the blaster bolts effortlessly. Her body had fallen into the routine of motion. The shuttle had little room to spare, but she made the most of her reactions, deflecting the shots harmlessly with her blade. She practiced Soresu with remembered ease then as the floating droid upped the skill level, she changed into a more chaotic form of fighting.

 _"I don't know what to do."_

She had slipped from her room, from the dormitory where she had pretended to sleep so that Ben would leave. He worried for her, she could feel it. She knew it even though it was inexplicable how. Rey's childish mind conceived of apologizing to Master Luke.

Two voices - no, three.

 _"What you saw was a vision of the future. One of many."_

 _"The girl is young still. We watch her, yes?"_

Then, Luke's voice. _"I shouldn't have reacted like that. Ben knows something is different about her. For two years, I've watched her grow and the conflict remains inside her. She is too powerful to simply ignore."_

Conflict…light and darkness. She touched her chest. Inside me? Her heart beat fluttered beneath her fingertips.

 _"Their fates are bound together for good or ill. Only time will tell if they become the light of the galaxy or bring about its destruction."_ The latter's words filled her with terrible fear. Rey ran as fast as her legs would carry her, fleeing into the dark sanctity of the temple where she hid in the shadows.

She wasn't sure when she had begun whispering his name. Only one person in the galaxy understood her, only one person could take the sting of loneliness away. She had never felt so alone until the moment when she had realized Master Luke didn't want her there.

 _Ben. Ben. Ben. Please come to me. Ben._

Silence fell, the final candle was extinguished somewhere. The smell of candle wax reached her. Then, footsteps belonging to a familiar person. Rey bit her lip, suddenly ashamed she had reached out through the _Force_.

 _What if he turned her away too? What if…so many what ifs_ went through her mind, that she caught her breath when he appeared before her.

"Don't send me away!" She sobbed desperately. "I'll do anything - I'll be good, I promise!" Ben said nothing at first, kneeling before her like a knight of old. Rey felt his hands wrap around her upper arms, lifting her up. She was much too old to be carried around like a baby, she thought but didn't care. Rey wrapped her legs around his waist, collapsing against the older boy's chest, she clutched onto his sleeping robe with a desperation born of despair. Ben lifted her up fully into his arms and carried her with slow, strong steps outside.

Beneath the pale moonlight, they sat atop a small grassy knoll overlooking the temple.

"I heard him say - there was conflict in me." Rey mumbled, feeling the need to explain herself.

"That doesn't mean…you're going to turn."

"Master Luke doesn't like me."

"It's not that. He simply doesn't know what to do with such a gifted student." Ben sounded so strong and convincing that she glanced at him frequently. He had been everything to her, friend, mentor…he had taken her flying in Luke's X-Wing once. He had devoted so much to her that the other youngling had spoken of her as his Padawan. _Padawan_ , she liked the sound of it.

"You just need to find your balance. It exists everywhere, in every living thing. Once you find it, all your doubts, your fears will vanish." Ben explained. Awe filled her eyes. She understood it all now.

She had found it…the balance between darkness and light, she had found it with him. Rey felt a sudden rush of rare happiness. Impulsively, she leaned over to kiss his cheek. Ben turned toward her then, about to say something else. Awkwardly, her lips brushed his.

 _"Thank you."_

She felt someone behind her, turning on instinct, Rey slashed down inches from cleaving through BB-8's chassis. The droid beeped at her furiously, rolling backward.

"Sorry." She muttered sheepishly, switching off her light saber. The floor rocked as the ship left hyperspace. "You wanted to tell me something?" Rey puzzled, staring down at the droid. The ship began bleating proximity alert.

"What?"

She ran forward to the cockpit, shuddering as a star fighter flew past her so close the window vibrated. Beyond the four walls of the shuttle's enclosure, a pitched battle raged above the snow-covered surface of Starkiller.

"Resistance fighters!?"

BB-8 issued a few choice blips.

"Right. No time to lose." Rey strapped herself in quickly, hitting a few switches to disengage from autopilot. "C'mon, BB-8, get those shields up!"

The droid rolled over to the wall panel, detaching the circuitry with an extendable arm. Rey anxiously watched the shield power up as the turbo thrusters kicked in. The shuttle flew forward into the melee, narrowly avoiding a direct collision with a TIE Fighter. Rey overrode the manual weapons control, transferring the target screen to her monitor.

"Hold on, BB-8!" She went into a sharp belly roll evading the plasma stream fired above her. Soaring beneath, she chased after the distinctive orange and white X-Wing fighter who had fired at her. Rey waited seconds, veering to the left. The X-Wings had broken formation scattering in a loose web. They were distracting from another squadron on the planet's surface. Rey glimpsed the bright light of explosions far below.

"Got you."

The target lit up.

The shuttle soared through the resulting explosion. Coordinated assaults like these wouldn't last long without further support. Rey glanced toward the massive shadow blocking out the light of the system's star.

One of many from the fleet, she smiled grimly recognizing the _Tarkin_. The commander aboard the Star Destroyer was known for his ruthlessness and loyalty. The _Tarkin_ scrambled out fighters in droves, black TIE fighters swarmed the few Resistance fighters, downing three of them before the rest began to pull back.

All except for one.

The X-Wing looked like it had seen better days. Battered, dented, the paint peeling off the sides, the fighter flew right into the thick of the TIEs pursuing the rebels. She started to smile thinking the pilot must've had a suicide wish.

Light exploded in several places. Green laser cannons opened fire on their fellows. Rey felt their screams rip through her, eyes widening as the X-Wing flew past her for the Star Destroyer.

 _Battle meditation._

 _Mind trick._

She could think of a number of techniques a Jedi could use. "Ben?" She held back from pursuit. He flew between the rotating turrets, the light from his torpedoes slamming into the surface cannons of the _Tarkin_. A few of the TIEs followed, swooping low. The skill of the First Order's pilots were no match for him. She watched breathless as he took out the last canon, pulling into a fast curving swerve narrowly close to the control tower. The TIEs in pursuit banked sharply but spun wildly out of control. Rey flinched as explosions rocked the cruiser.

For a moment, she lost sight of the X-Wing. The sudden rush of exhilarating emotion flooded her head. Rey felt euphoric, alive with the rush of flight and within those feelings, his Force signature, bright and pulsing like a star.

 _Ben._

She could see him now, in the dusty cockpit, grinning from ear to ear. He wore belted black trousers, a dark brown vest of some kind of hide over a long sleeved tunic. His light saber was clipped to his belt. He had come alone.

 _Rey._

The exuberance faded.

"Don't worry," She whispered; BB-8 rolled up beside her seat. "I feel it too." For moment, she could see him fully, the dampened connection made sharper by spatial proximity.

Then, the X-Wing fell from the sky.

"No!" She shouted, startling BB-8. The Finalizer had finally arrived from hyperspace. The shadow of the monolith severed her sight from the plummeting craft's descent. Rey left the relative cover of the Star Destroyer's underbelly, spiraling above the Finalizer.

"The rest got away." Hux's disappointment came through the speakers. Rey cut the transmission, furious. "Hold on…,"

BB-8 chirped in fright, rolling forward suddenly. Tensile metal arms popped out of the droid's hidden compartments, latching onto the copilot seat. The nose of the shuttle made its final descent; at that moment she didn't care what they saw.

Hux. The Stormtroopers, the remaining TIE pilots. The only thing she could see was Ben and his damned meditation. The calmness of acceptance.

"There is no death, there is the Force." He chanted the words softly as the wings of the craft burnt up breaching the atmosphere. Terror surged through Rey, she wasn't going to reach him. He was going to die and become part of the Force and everything - everything she had done to keep a piece of herself safe, was going to burn up in front of her.

 _You're not leaving me._

 _You're not -_

Ben sensed her far above. The acknowledgement came with the exhalation of breath.

"Take over!" She shouted to the droid. Ignoring BB-8's vocal complaint, she reached out. It was difficult to center herself. The shuttle's onboard computer beeped proximity alert. Rey glimpsed the pale white of drifting cloud cover, her hand lifting from the auxiliary shaft.

Time slowed around her searching fingertips.

In the far distance, she saw the remnants of the X-Wing. Rey focused the entirety of her will on a shield. So much of her teaching under Snoke failed to grasp the concept of defense, protection especially for others was an alien concept in Sith arts. But, not in the light. Rey reached deep inside her memories for the lesson Skywalker taught her.

She breathed in and out, expanding her consciousness.

In the final moments of the crash, her shuttle clipped the side of a low lying mountain. Jostled in her seat, she felt the lancet of pain splice through her head. Then, silence as they crashed into the snow covered ground..

* * *

Something nudged her hand.

She didn't move, uttering a soft moan. Something burned nearby. She could smell burning fuselage, the acrid odor filling her nostrils when she breathed in. Rey came to sputtering, choking. BB-8's red eye roved over the straps holding her in her seat, the droid chirped a query not expecting a reply.

"Ben! Ben!" Fumbling with the strap, she finally freed herself, stumbling through the destroyed end of the shuttle. Her boots sank into the soft ground, as she surveyed the snowy plain. Bits and pieces of the shuttle lay smoldering from the descent, twisted up edges of the X-Wing lay scattered father afield.

She skated to a stop.

There had been so many inspections of downed TIE fighters, crashed into a variety of worlds. The twisted, blackened remains had always held a corpse, sometimes burnt beyond recognition. On the Star Destroyers, the fleet consisted of number identifiers. She had never forgotten there had been a face behind the helmets. For a moment, her worst fears came true.

Then, she felt it...a spark of his _Force_ signature.

She lifted off the roof of the cockpit using the Force. Ben lay within, unconscious, strapped to his seat. Rey almost thought he wasn't breathing, then he stirred, blood coated the side of his face from a gash in the brow. His black hair lay plastered to the side of his cheek. He exhaled and he looked at her focusing with difficulty.

She heard the whir of a snow speeder; reconnaissance from the base. They would be here soon.

"Why? Why did you do it?" Despair darkened her initial relief. It was all over. The moment Snoke sensed him in the Force, the moment when her shields had fallen from her mind, he would've known she had lied.

"That should be…my question."

* * *

Everything hurt. He was conscious of the ebb and flow of pain. Badly bruised from the crash, his head and neck felt concussed. Ben drifted through the rudimentary healing offered by med droids in the med bay to the uncomfortable pinch of manacles fastened around his wrists and ankles.

He had heard of the electric shock and torture common to the First Order's interrogation methods. Sounded fun, he thought, gradually awakening into a circular room. He faced a sealed doorway beyond which were a pair of Stormtroopers, minor grunts for such an important prisoner.

Ben almost felt annoyed he hadn't warranted more security.

"You're awake," the cultured female voice, rich with accent came from behind the rack he had been strapped onto. Ben felt his pulse quicken. Darkness drfited on the edge of his vision. Rey hovered into sight. She had changed into a clean tunic, loose silk draped across her bodice, trailing around her fitted trousers. She wore her hair down the way he liked it.

"Yeah, guess I can't hide anything from you."

She was close, too close.

Something about her proximity did something to him. _How had the Jedi of old cut themselves off of emotion, need?_ If she was aware of his inner conflict, she gave no sign.

"You can't…not the location of the rebel's base. Not even Skywalker's location."

"That's what you think." Ben probed his mental shields. She hadn't breached them during his unconscious state likely wanting to prolong the torture when she extracted them from him while awake. Neither moved, then Rey slowly extended her hand. She had left off the confining gloves, touching his face. Ben started at the sensation of her fingertips on his jaw, folding into a gentle caress.

 _"When you were trying to sleep at night…you pictured us together."_ Rey spoke into his head. Ben shifted, wishing he could shut himself off of his emotive response. _"You kept dreaming of what we could've been."_

 _"No."_

 _"Yes. It was also in my mind."_ Rey leaned against him, her lips grazing the stubble on his cheek. Ben's gaze slid to hers. _"The cameras?"_

 _"They're turned off."_ As if to substantiate her claim, a round orange and white BB unit rolled into sight. The droid watched her disapprovingly, beeping a query that she ignored.

 _"Rey…,"_

 _"I'm not a child anymore."_

 _"I can see that."_ Yes, he could. His body knew it too. In the darkest depths of what passed for his conception of night in space, he had wondered what good were arms if there was nothing to hold in them. What good was the light if he had nothing to share with it.

 _"Once you were,"_ with difficulty, he tried to clear his mind of thoughts of her in his mouth. The flicker of a smile curved her lips. His mind was too open to her. _"What happened to you…why did you betray us for the Dark Side?"_

* * *

 _"Why?"_ A look of blankness momentarily displaced her smugness. _"Ah…Luke…did he tell you what he did?"_ Taking Ben's silence as agreement, Rey went on. _"Of course he wouldn't. He couldn't risk his flesh and blood finding out the truth. He used you, Ben, he used you and lied to you - he even left you behind to find out the mystery of the Jedi!"_

 _"Rey-"_

 _"Let me show you."_

She had coalesced her memories, her thoughts and feelings into a coherent stream of consciousness. Rey felt him struggle against her darker Force signature pushing its way into his mind. Ben recoiled from the darkness, but eventually caved. His outer mental defenses were useless against the Force Bond. Into it, she injected a fleeting stream of her memories, the fright of a child left behind on a desert world.

 _"He abandoned me."_

 _"Jakku."_

 _"He was afraid of our bond. Luke Skywalker destroyed my tiny piece of happiness and now you will show me where he is."_ Ben resisted her. Pushed at her through their invisible connection. Rey had dwelled for so long on the bitterness of her days as a scavenger that it gave her strength anew. She fought her way into his mind aggressively tearing each and every piece of happiness into a nightmare.

In the wavelength of the _Force_ , he cried aloud, tormented by the searing horror of her life. _Lies. Jakku. The desert. Unceasing thirst. Hux and the children. The vicious little pick pockets who fought under Cardinal's training regime._

 _Stop._

 _No._

 _Stop. Rey, please._

She didn't want to. For so long all the hateful ugly feelings inside her had remained dormant in her heart. They were her worst nightmares, her anguish and rage at discovering she had been left alone.

 _"You saved me only to torture me. Kill me."_ Ben's voice echoed in her head. _"Kill me and prove Snoke's moniker correct. Jedi Killer."_

She stopped as if physically slapped. The simple truth in his embittered tone took her back to the moment he had extended his hand toward her. In the firelight and cold of the moonlit night, the pull to the light had nearly overwhelmed her center of gravity.

"Come back to me."

It was all so simple. Rey felt her younger self's mind churning. She had been given a task to destroy the future of the Jedi Order. Snoke had released her inhibitions, he had wiped the face of her two years of Jedi training into the hallmark of a Jedi Killer.

Snoke would accept nothing less than Ben's death.

"I…,"

She sliced upward through his face. The dark beam of light sent him toppling backward almost onto Skywalker's green light saber. Ben screamed aloud, pain and agony scoring deep into her psyche, then she had turned aside. Luke stayed with his nephew, staring at the monster she had become.

"My Lord?"

Her acolytes, those who had followed Snoke's teachings, questioned her. They had seen her turn aside her light saber. They knew she hadn't ended the Jedi. She had been weak. They were weak, none of them a match for her raw strength.

She withdrew, trembling from the memory.

"Every day."

Sweat darkened the collar of his tunic. Dark circles stood out under Ben's eyes. He looked at her with something approaching pity.

"I told myself I had killed you. It was the only way I could keep you safe." Rey stepped close to him, her body shuddering with repressed sobs. She drew up close to him, hand pressed to his chest. "Now that he knows you're alive, he'll stop at nothing to destroy you." Her fingers curled, the gesture hidden. Ben couldn't find any words to say, the bonds loosened on his wrists and ankles.

"I have to report." With one last look of remorse, she stepped away and let herself out of the room. The droid rolled after her slowly. Ben waited a few minutes, then stiffly extricated himself from the interrogation chamber. In light of everything he had learned, the semblance of a plan came together in the scoured recesses of his mind. _Steal a TIE fighter, lay low until a random deployment shuffled him out and escape without being tracked._

It sounded harebrained enough, something that his father or Luke might've concocted, that there was a chance it would work.

* * *

Rey heard the deep-pitched age-ridden voice of the projection. Her steps slowed, she managed to compose herself before entering the bridge.

"I am aware of your little detour."

"The rebels were hiding in the Illenium system. Our reconnaissance tracked them there, Supreme Leader." Hux said with difficulty. Rey paused in the doorway; Hux was stretched out full-length on the floor. She could feel the fear of the officers working quietly at their stations.

"Yet they got away!" Snoke's head swiveled toward her. "Coordinated assault on Starkiller made you give up the bigger prize."

Hux went skating past her, thudding into the wall.

"And you, my apprentice." His oily smile landed on her. "What do you have to say for this unexpected turn of events?"

"Hux brought the Finalizer here to aid Starkiller. His actions aren't those of a coward, rather we were able to gain a valuable prisoner through his intersession above the planet."

"Ah…, and have you learned anything from this prisoner?" Snoke was toying with her. He already knew through Ben's use of the _Force_ above Starkiller.

"Yes and with your permission I would like to postpone our meeting until I have returned." She bowed slightly from the waist.

"That won't be necessary. We have a few matters to discuss, you and I." The projection clicked off. Snoke vanished and in the absence of his presence, Hux climbed painfully to his feet.

"I didn't need your defense."

"I wasn't defending you."

Armitage glared at her impassive expression, hostility eventually lessening. "How are your injuries?"

She had visited the med bay briefly rather than get an earful from BB-8. "I'm fine." She felt somewhat sore from the crash, but nothing a soak in a bacta-tank wouldn't get rid of.

"I took the liberty of arranging a new transport for you." Hux said; one of the officers detached from the shield generator station carrying a datapad. "It's a TIE/vn space superiority fighter. It's fast and capable of generating defensive shields. I thought you would like it." Hux scanned her face for approval.

Rey looked over the holo projection's specs, the usual twin ion engines and equipped laser cannons were similar to her wrecked shuttle. "Good enough. Are the coordinates uploaded to the onboard computer?"

"Yes, the Supreme Leader's flagship has jumped from airspace above Chandrila to the Horuset system. There seems to be one planet there, Moraband." He frowned, "there doesn't seem to be anything of importance in the data files."

"It was once called Korriban during an earlier age." Rey murmured, surprised. "It's a mausoleum for the dead Sith Lords."

* * *

Ben strolled across the massive hangar of the Finalizer. White armored troopers marched in orderly file, a few stood together in clumps, talking. He was somewhat amused to hear a few talk of using time off to visit one of the conquered worlds. Another complained of the protein bars from the cafeteria. Ben noticed a few black suited TIE pilots awaiting deployment and went to stand closer to them.

He tensed when he glimpsed her from afar. Rey walked almost side by side with a ginger-haired man, who gestured arrogantly to the rows of TIE fighters in alignment above to the troopers who stopped at attention for a quick salute.

Armitage Hux, son of Brendol Hux. From Rey's memories of her removal from Jakku, he recognized him. Hux and Rey drew closer. She turned slightly, touching Hux's arm.

"You shouldn't stare." Grunted one of the pilots.

Well, that was true, he shouldn't. But, it was almost impossible to take his eyes off her. Ben was subtly relieved when the deployment signal came. He climbed upward into the cockpit third from the middle row. A small squadron of TIEs returned into their slots, rotating above for mechanical adjustments. Ben had rudimentary knowledge of different flight systems, waiting for the tethering line to break off, then he lifted off into the air, following the row of fighters streaming out into the darkened sky of the planet killer. He waited longer to clear the planet's atmosphere, pleasantly surprised at the TIE's responsive system as he broke away from the others.

Ben set the coordinates, frowning at the numerical display of Aurebesh.

"FN-6227, return to your fighting formation at once!" The voice came through the comm. Ben reached over one-handed, thumbing the disconnect. "Sorry. I'm a little busy right now." He felt the jolt in the fighter as its byperdrive kicked in. The ship leapt forward into a tunnel of blurred stars.

Ahch-to was off all charted maps, dwelling in the vast unknown region of the galaxy. Ben had scarcely a thought on how to approach his former Master. Their goodbyes had been stilted, lacking the warmth of family when Luke had left in his old X-Wing. He had left to seek out the mystery of the _Force_ in an attempt to understand how everything had gone so terribly wrong. In the aftermath of Rey's return, Ben had frequently touched the uneven edges of his scar, wondering if it had all been a dream or a nightmare.

The TIE emerged from hyperspace above a large blue world dotted with small island chains. Ben guided the fighter in breaching the atmosphere fast only to descend slowly looking for a place to land. He would never have admitted it to anyone, but he had begun to miss Chewbacca. The wookie had been his constant companion since the temple's destruction. The Resistance, his mother…did no one truly need him? Even Luke had abandoned him in the galaxy. Ben circled around the largest island, finally spotting a rocky outcropping with a somewhat level surface not far from a flight of rough hewn stone steps rising up toward the pinnacle of a cave mouth.

Gliding down with a slight jarring thud, he removed the air mask from his face. For not the first time, he wondered if he had made a mistake. He could've disappeared into the Outer Rim…and known with a certainty Rey would find the few people he cared for - _what am I here for?_

 _The truth._

The look in her eyes had haunted him throughout the long flight through hyperspace.

Ben glanced around, the coldness from the proximity to the ocean had begun to leach the warmth from his body. Casting his senses wide, Ben felt the rush of the sea, the cries of strange brown and white creatures. He felt the ancient mystery of the place deep in his soul.

He started climbing. Higher and higher, he wasn't sure what he expected to find. Had he been too late? Was Luke…no. He could still sense him somewhere, but it was faint. The closure of a mind, the closure of someone off from the Force. Mouth set in a grim, hard line, he bounded up the rest of the steps breathing hard.

Luke was within one of the caves, sitting beside a circular mosaic filled with a shallow lip of water.

"Luke!" Words failed Ben, he hadn't expected his uncle to appear so aged, so diminished. In his head, he had always thought of him as a robust man in the prime of health, prowess. He had not expected the brittle shell of a man in a cream colored tunic and trousers.

"I knew you would come eventually."

Ben drew closer, as he did so, his gaze fell on the mosaic. The image depicted a Jedi shaded one half white, the other half a shade darker. He wanted to ask how had Luke found the remnants of the Jedi Order. But, more pressing questions pushed into the forefront of his mind.

"You told me she wanted no part of the Jedi."

 _She wanted nothing to do with me._

For so long he had blamed himself. If he had exercised self-restraint, held back from responding to the gentle brush of her lips - but when it had concerned her, his restraint was gone.

"Ben-"

"I didn't understand -," he exhaled noisily. "That night when she came back. Her anger. The hatred she felt watching everything burn." Rey had reveled in the sight of the temple burning beneath the moon. "Tell me, Master," Ben glared at his former mentor. "Is it true that you abandoned her on Jakku?"

* * *

"You let Ben Solo go."

The words echoed in the air. Rey knelt, her mind forcibly blank. Snoke was in her mind. He knew her insecurities. She bit her lip, the only action betraying her unease hidden by the deep cowl.

"He escaped." She ventured to say. It was the same thing. He tricked the mind of a TIE pilot to escape in one of the fighters deployed with all the rest. Ben was cunning like his father, she could admire that about him.

"He is a Jedi Knight. You thought he was dead all these long years. How does it feel, my apprentice…" Snoke flooded her mind with images of Ben's death. "To know you were wrong?!" His voice rose on a thunderous clap. Rey didn't move. "My apologies."

"Your words - is that all you have to offer the First Order? Who gave you everything! You are no one and nothing to nobody!"

She started up to her feet, surging in a sudden burst of pure emotion. "I am somebody to someone!" Her shout echoed as the sizzle of electricity flew through the air. Force lightning. She knew the mechanics of the Force-generated energy. Rey leapt back, deflecting the strike with the precision of her blaster bolt training.

"Such rage!" Far from being displeased, pride shone through Snoke's voice. "Such skill! You are my finest creation in spite of the obsession you have with Solo." He lapsed onto a thoughtful chuckle, gesturing almost lazily from the throne. Rey felt the immense pull on her light saber, the feeling of a giant's grasp yanking it from her hands.

"Remember, Rey, the rule of two. Master and Apprentice." The saber's beam vanished; the praetorian guards halted in their fighting stances. Rey's eyes slid over them, her hood had fallen back with her leap. She watched the hilt zoom in a wide circle around the throne room before coming to rest in midair.

"Now, what are you going to do with the information you gained from Solo?" Snoke's words were a deathly hiss in her mind. The warning thrummed throughout her entire body. She had no doubt that he could seize the heart in her chest, twisting it into shreds. Fear and hope warred an emotional conflict in her soul. Rey desperately tried stabilizing herself and only succeeded in remembering the sensation Luke had taught her long ago.

 _Breathe. Just breathe. Now reach out and tell me what you see?_

Ben's face.

Her true enemy.

"Take what you've taught me -"

The light saber vibrated. Snoke meant to strike her with it. He had done so in physical combat, mocking her stupidity. "And create my own destiny!" She ignited the light saber with a roar of anger, drawing on the depths of the darkness thickening the air. At the very last, she pulled on the threads of light, _Ben's light_ , weaving her power in the neutralizing shade of grey.

The blade thrummed to life, slicing forward upright. Instead of hesitating when she had cut open Ben's face, Rey sent it hurtling like a spear through Snoke's skull. Black rainbows sparked a beautiful medley of light and shadow. Snoke's last utterance ended in a vocalized gasp.

In the ensuing silence, the crackle of electricity preceded the charge of the Praetorian guards.

* * *

Luke read the struggle in Ben's expression, the barely held back lash of anger. His nephew had always been susceptible to the fluctuation of emotion. The pulse of power thrummed in the air. Luke felt it through his muted senses, casting a quick glance around. The energy, the familiar pull had come from somewhere far off.

Ben seemed unaware of it.

"Answer me! What did you do to her?!"

Then, he simply knew. Rey was drawing energy through the bond. Every step he had taken to separate them and something beyond him, greater than him had tied his flesh and blood to the darkness. "There is isn't any light left her in, can't you see that, Ben?" Luke scowled, pacing away from the cavern. Ben hurried to keep up, his mouth twisting in a grimace. "I saw inside her. Our - bond…you knew it existed -"

"I cut her off the _Force_."

 _What_ ….he froze.

"I know what I've done. Rey had too much influence over you." Master and Padawan stared at one another. Incredulity and horror worked across his nephew's face. Luke imagined he saw something of Leia in Ben's eyes, some of Han in the shape of his face and mouth.

 _I tried_ , he thought. _Maker forgive me, I tried to stop it_.

"You want to know the truth?"

"Yes." Ben spat the word out. He could feel the pull stronger than ever, draining him, fluctuating with the rise of his _Force_ signature.

"I took her flying…she had warmed up to me. She had always seemed such an insular child, but she talked about you. That was all she wanted to do was talk about you, the first Jedi I had trained, the one who was to succeed me."

Ben had seen Rey's memory. Luke had offered to take her to him.

"She trusted you."

"I know she did." Luke sighed, his back to the open sea front, the cliff's edge. "In the archives recovered from the Empire, I had discovered a way of cutting someone off from the _Force_. Plant the seed in their head that they're alone and the damage is already done. Oh, I thought of destroying the blight when I had a chance. It was instinct, Ben. Pure instinctual reaction, but I couldn't. I left her on Jakku without memories of the Academy or you. I planted the seed of her parents in her head so she would continue to wait for them."

"She would wait for someone who was never coming back." He had seen the child she had been, shouting after the white shuttle as it lifted off into the sky of the desert planet.

 _"Come back!"_ The echo of her desperation lingered. Ben reached for his light saber automatically, without a thought in his head. The blade hummed to life, splashing an aqua blue glow on the cave floor. Vivid memories of wielding the light saber during his younger days went through Luke's mind. They stared one another down, neither moving. For a moment, the light inside his nephew went out.

Ben swept into a low charge, his hair kept long around his ears lifted with the abruptness of his motion. Luke sensed the immensity of the dark side gathering, defiling the sacredness of the island. Within the whirlpool of dark energy he could hear the psychic resonance of all those who had been sacrificed to the dark side of the _Force_.

He readied himself for the blow that never came.

Ben halted, his body as tense as a wire, then as his boots slid apart into his spread-legged stance, he spun suddenly seeing something only he could see.

 _No. Not now._

The pressure increased as he felt himself pulled into a vast room accessible across a narrow bridge. Vivid red painted the walls surrounding a black throne. The withered figure from his deepest nightmares, sat slumped in the throne, clad in a long gold lamé robe. There was a gaping hole through the forehead of the Supreme Leader, the edges of the wound were clean, cauterized like from the beam of a light saber.

Ben tore his gaze away from Snoke's corpse, seeing her locked in a deadly dance of blades with red armored guards.

 _I can't do anything to help her._

In the same moment, he admired her wild swings, the deft way she twisted and pivoted beneath the curved sickle blades. One of the fallen twitched then, dragging itself up on its knees. Ben saw the trajectory of the guard's aim and shouted her name.

 _"Rey!"_

This was it.

She was going to be killed in front of him.

 _No_. He started forward uselessly, wishing he was there with her to protect her back. Light and Dark meant nothing if he couldn't fight at her side.

A mechanized whir came from behind him. Ben felt something rush through him as Rey dove to the side narrowly missing being impaled. The astromech produced a blaster muzzle from a hidden compartment, proceeding to open fire.

 _"I was a little busy."_ She turned and delivered a spinning hook kick into the face plate of one. _"But, Thanks."_

 _"Anything for you."_ Her sweat was his, the ache of multiple wounds to the arm and abdomen leaked through into his physical body. Ben watched Rey dissolve from sight, releasing breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He thumbed the switch on the light saber, deactivating it.

"Where did you go, Ben? You went to her, didn't you?"

He wiped sweat from his brow. "Rey killed Snoke. She was fighting alone." _Not alone_. She had the droid. But, what was a droid? She needed him. "What was your excuse? I'd like to hear it from your own mouth."

"Do you know what I saw when I touched her hand?"

He shook his head slightly.

"I saw pain and death….I saw your future, Ben, and hers. You were going to turn. She was going to make you fall and a new Sith Empire was going to arise from the ashes of the Republic."

"No, I don't believe you!" He shouted, the chaotic flow of energy caught Luke off guard. The ground split from Ben's outburst. Luke watched him warily, his hand extended. "Ben, you're out of balance. It's her doing this to you." Luke knew better than to touch him. "Search your feelings, you know I'm right."

Ben backed away from him, breathing hard. It was difficult, so very difficult to sort out the conflicting feelings going through his head. Rey was out there somewhere in the galaxy fighting for her life, somewhere feeling the tug…the urge to come to him as he to her.

"I…," and he walked off down the winding path, scattering porgs in his wake.

* * *

Metal clanked on the narrow bridgeway.

Rey spun to face whoever it was, sweat and blood dripped down her face. Chrome met her blurry sight. She would've known the figure anywhere. Phasma. Captain Phasma. Rey had a fleeting memory of the woman - the first time she had ever defeated her in training -

Phasma lifted her blaster almost casually. Without the presence of Snoke in her mind blocking out the _Force Bond_ , she could feel the separate tug in her soul, but other than that, her mind was blissfully empty. "Phasma…," she whispered, readying her stance.

The troop leader fired past her. Rey flinched from the heat of the blaster bolt. The praetorian guard collapsed in a soundless heap of metallic red armor.

"You missed one. You always do."

She fought off a smile.

* * *

Down by the TIE fighter, he stood at the fringe of the wild surf.

"Rage is an emotion of the Dark Side. Passion. Cruelty. Hatred. There is no death, there is the Force. I am one with the Force and the Force is with me." He wasn't sure how long he could continue believing it. Ben exhaled the salted air watching the long spiked tail of a huge sea reptile emerge briefly into sight before the creature dove back into the choppy water. "I am one with the Force…," the pressure intensified against his eardrums. He caught movement from the corner of his eye and then she was standing there beside him.

 _"Who restored your Force sensitivity?"_

 _"No one did."_ Rey's voice echoed in his mind the length of a heartbeat, blood rushing through his ears. _"It was Cardinal…a training bout with him…he was absolutely brutal… Phasma and Hux were there also, they had come from the Finalizer to observe Cardinal's training program. Cardinal took his anger out on me. I reached out…something in me came alive and I could feel what had always been suppressed inside me. I reached out and summoned a blaster rifle to my hand. Hux reported my Force sensitivity to Snoke and he took me on as his apprentice."_

 _"Your memories…?"_

 _"They're intact. Snoke was the one who filled in the gaps. He explained how I had been cut off from the Force by a memory wipe. I had been left to rot on Jakku."_

 _"I know."_

 _"So Luke told you."_

 _"Yes."_ He had no words in Aurebesh, in Basic, in none of the galaxy's many tongues to let her know the depth of betrayal he felt. Even then, he was sure she could feel it. Their bond felt a widening gap in his mind. The closer they were, the harder it was to separate the edges where his thoughts began and hers bled.

 _"Rey."_ He half-turned toward her, resisting the urge, the need to reach out. He found his thoughts traveling toward prolonged physical contact. Their bodies in synchronized motion, mirroring the emotions of their union. _It was inevitable_ , he thought, _like a dying star._

 _"No death,"_ Rey smiled faintly, her lips a slim curve of pink. _"A beginning."_ Then, she faded away.

* * *

The med droid hovered into her line of sight. She waved her hand for the droid to continue. She had laid out a clean tunic and leggings in her customary quarters. Phasma had suggested it was best to carry on pretense, explaining her presence as requested by Hux, who thought something might be amiss.

On the elevator ride back from the throne room, Rey had observed Phasma's chrome helmet, the narrow black visor.

"What do you want most in the galaxy, Phasma?"

"Is that a rhetorical question or will you take what you want to know?"

Wryly, Rey's lips twisted into a grin. BB-8's head had swiveled from her to the troop leader. "I could, but I would rather have an answer." Phasma's lack of Force sensitivity made her easier to control.

"Power."

"Why?"

"For the same reason you destroyed Snoke."

Rey was silent, observing her own face reflected in the glass and metal plating opposite. "I did that because…," of Ben. For us. "The light side, the dark side, no one ever let me choose. Now I have the freedom to make my own destiny."

* * *

"What is it between us?"

The fire warmed the air around them. Luke sat across him, gaze fixated on the roasting fish on the spit. "A Force Bond. They were common during a more civilized era between Master and Padawan. Sometimes, they were used in battle to coordinate allies."

"Why us?" Ben felt cold inside, the warmth had been sapped from his bones, chilling his blood. "Rey was a child and I-"

"She was powerful even then. You sensed her, you connected as it were. Because of your proximity, the bond grew. During the age of the Galactic Republic, there was a _Force Bond_ made between a Jedi known as Bastila Shan. She _Force bonded_ herself with Darth Revan, a fallen Jedi turned Sith Lord. Revan was defeated through the _Force Bond_ , his memories wiped by the Jedi Council."

"What happened to them?"

Disapproval laced Luke's tone. "They fell in love after defeating Darth Malak's Empire. Revan was haunted by memories and left Bastila pregnant to go in search of his past. He disappeared from history after that."

"So the Jedi Order was different. They _could_ have families." Ben kept his tone carefully neutral.

"For good or ill, yes. That was over three thousand years ago."

"What about the Force Bond? Can it be broken?"

"Given what I've found out about it…no. Unless the person's feelings change or death, but ultimately the loss is like a wound in the psyche. You would never recover from it hence the reason why Jedi were separated from their families early in life to avoid them becoming attached through the Force and manipulated for ill gain."

"So that's why you didn't kill her." His smile was ghastly to Luke's gaze. "Because of me. Isn't that it?"

"Ben, I was indecisive. Would you have rather had me murder a child?"

"You buried her alive on a desert planet." Ben said coldly, his voice rising. "How was that not the same as death of the spirit? You made her what she is now…a monster."

"I deserve that and more. It was true I was weak and full of folly. I thought I had made the right decision in keeping you two apart."

"Yes…I became the hated Jedi Knight always on the run, always despised and distrusted because of Vader."

"You are not your grandfather, Ben! Never believe that for an instant!" In Luke's wearied tone, Ben recognized much the same disgust of the galaxy. Those were feelings a Jedi should never harbor; they both knew it. "I…wasn't as affected as Leia with that particular truth. I was still Luke Skywalker, a living legend." The older man huffed, prodding the fish with a slim stick of driftwood. "Much good we ever did the universe."

"She lost everything. The senate…her status." Ben remembered his mother's depression. His father had been away during the crisis and so had he, but he still recalled what it felt like to be pointed at and stared at when he made a routine run for supplies to the nearest outpost. "She had to rebuild her life from the ground up."

"She didn't lose everything." Luke pointed out, trying to smile. "She still has you."

"I can't see her when I want to. She's always on the run, never staying for long in one place. You know they think I'm dangerous because of my Jedi mind tricks?"

"Really now. They wouldn't know a mind trick unless it slapped them in the face." Luke chuckled, thinking of his long dead master Obi-Wan fooling the Stormtroopers on Tatooine. Life had been much simpler when he wasn't rescuing a princess or playing hero in an X-Wing.

"Why did you come to find me, Ben?"

"I…wanted to know if what she had said was true. For so long, I had lied to myself about her." The look in his eyes held wounded trust. "I believed in you. Rey didn't deserve that fate. Her choice wasn't made."

"Ben-"

"We are two halves of one whole. How could you think separating us was the answer?" He forced aside the rising tide of anger. He had schooled himself on reckless emotion, knowing of the dangers in letting go. "I also came because mother needs you. The Resistance didn't send me, but I know it. I can feel it out there." Ben gestured to the stars above. "The light is fading, along with it hope for defeating the First Order. Snoke might be defeated, but there are plenty who will seek to take his place."

"What do you expect me to do?" Luke was subtly relieved they had moved on from discussing his former student. "What can I do?"

"Give them hope. Hope is like the sun -"

"Your mother used to say that." Luke muttered, removing the fish from the spit. Somewhat irritated, Ben decided to change tactics. "Even if you don't come back to the Resistance, Rey will find you."

"She's after you, kid. She _wants_ you."

 _She wants to kill you first_ , he thought humorlessly, not quite rising to the bait.

"You'll be the one to bring her here like a moth to the flame."

* * *

Rey watched the last of the Resistance fleet vanish off the Finalizer's radar. The Dreadnought had been tracking them since the attack on Starkiller. From the corner of her eye, Hux shifted, impeccable in his tailored suit and long ankle-length coat. The man was one fifth the man his father had been.

"What are the results of Starkiller's lowered defenses?"

"Two saboteurs were discovered. One was a Resistance spy, Vi Moradi and the other was a defection from the Stormtrooper Training program."

"Cardinal."

If Phasma had been present, surely she wouldn't have missed the opportunity to remark on Cardinal's many failings. Cardinal was scum alright, but he was Jakku scum and a former favorite of Brendol Hux.

"Shall we reel them in?" Hux sounded like an eager little boy burning ants in the desert.

Rey considered the holographic representation of the fleet. Over a dozen well-trained officers surrounded her on the bridge. Hyperspace tracking had recently been implemented into the Star Destroyer's design. With Phasma, she had legions of Stormtroopers under her command. Starkiller had suffered damage, but it was nothing that couldn't be repaired with time.

"No." She surprised herself. "No, that won't be necessary. We can choose the time and place of execution." Besides, she had felt Leia Organa Solo calling out into the _Force_. Leia, chief architect of the Resistance, Ben's mother - could not die by her hand.

Hux looked disappointed.

"Let them rebuild their hope. The spark that keeps the Resistance alive will be snuffed out. The cruelest blow will come when they least expect it." Rey murmured, her ship was being prepared as they spoke. Ben had disabled the tracking from the TIE, but she could see him now as clearly as if the map of stars was etched into her mind. Armitage smirked, "for a moment I was beginning to doubt the Supreme Leader's wisdom in placing you in command. I see I was mistaken."

Rey's lips twitched into the semblance of a smile. Snoke's unexpected departure to the ancient Sith world of Korriban had served her well. Eventually, his demise would be learned but for the time being, she knew she could expect Hux to follow her lead like the obedient dog he was.

* * *

Luke had retired to one of the domed shelters made of dark grey rock; Ben had stayed below, staring moodily into the fire. There was a disturbance on Ahch-to, the world was unsettled, imbalanced. Luke's bitterness had tainted his connection to the Force. In a way, he didn't blame him. After the galaxy had turned on them years ago, Luke had gone into seclusion.

A soft blue glow suffused the outer edge of darkness. Presently, he felt it, lifting his gaze to the figure opposite. The figure had fully defined clothing, Jedi robes from an earlier age. Handsome, bearded, he recognized Obi-Wan Kenobi from holos recovered from the days of the Empire.

"Pleasant evening, young Solo." The ghost greeted.

"You were Luke's Master and…" he broke off, unsure if he should say it. "My grandfather's."

"In the days of the Republic, I was. But, I haven't come to reminisce."

"No…is it true that no one comes back?"

"You should know by now that hope, no matter how fleeting can illuminate the darkness. Do you think the girl you knew is gone?"

"I…I don't know. She protected me from Snoke in the only way she could." He knew what he wanted to believe. Rey…like his grandfather, Darth Vader, could be redeemed. "She and I…we balanced each other. Luke was wrong. I never turned…Snoke couldn't infiltrate my mind after the Force Bond was made. If Rey…,"

"Two halves, darkness and light." Obi Wan remarked, the solidness of his form wavering at the edges. "What is the color in between white and black, Ben?"

"Grey."

"And you have your answer." The Jedi Master smiled, vanishing slowly from sight.

* * *

BB-8 chirped a greeting when she appeared in the hangar. The droid detached from a contingent of BB-9es, rolling toward her.

"I could go it alone." She murmured as the droid's spherical body rolled faster to keep up with her. BB-8's chassis had suffered external damage, dents and dings marred the droid's round body. "There's only one thing I have to do." One thing left. BB-8 protested loudly, causing a few Stormtroopers to idly glance toward the tiny droid, then shift their focus quickly away from her.

Rey thought it had something to do with mind tricks. "Okay, okay, you can come along." The small needle-like appendage disappeared back into the hidden compartment of the droid. If she hadn't known better, she would've thought BB-8's chirp sounded suspiciously smug.

Once inside the shuttle, she went through pre-launch procedures, her fingers skimming the controls. Rey set the ship on autopilot, looking straight ahead unwaveringly as the ship jumped into hyperspace. She exhaled her nervousness away.

Luke had once told her.

 _Breathe. Just breathe._

Rey blinked away memories of her first lesson in the _Force_. BB-8 chirped a question in binary. She turned her head to answer the droid and felt something else. Pressure. Silence. The seat next to her was no longer empty.

 _"Ben?"_ She could hear surprise and relief in her own tone. He had been thinking of her, she could tell. He wasn't surprised to see her, the trace of a smile lingering in his eyes.

 _"Do you remember the last time we saw each other?"_

She immediately thought of Starkiller.

 _"When we were young,"_ Ben clarified, bemused.

 _"Yeah, I…,"_ visions of her younger self went through Rey's head. She had the grace to blush, embarrassed. " _You left after that."_

 _"I know and when I came back, you were gone."_

 _"I waited for you, you know. On Jakku, I couldn't remember who I was waiting for. In my mind, I equated abandonment with my parents. But, it wasn't them."_

 _"I'm sorry."_

 _"You didn't know."_ Her teachings had taught her to distrust the words of others, to seek domination and control. Rey struggled with her impulses, realizing a neutral answer was best. _"Why did you bring it up?"_ She felt some genuine curiosity.

 _"Do you remember when you kissed me?"_

Predictably, her eyes flew open wide. _"I did not! I-I was going to kiss your cheek, but you moved -"_ her face burned hotter noticing the ghost of a smile flitter across his face. _"That's not how I remembered it happening, Ben Solo! Besides, you kissed me back."_

 _"That's the same as admitting we kissed."_

Rey glared ineffectually, she was on the losing end of the argument. _"Okay, so what?"_

 _"I saw something…just a glimpse of our future, but it was as solid as you or I."_

It was gone now. She swallowed her own hesitation, the sudden arising of pain. Instead of drawing strength from it, she felt weakened. _"What was it?"_

 _"I was a Jedi Knight and you were my Padawan."_ Their eyes met and emotion flowed through the bond. It was so real, she felt she could almost reach out and touch it. Their future, the one they could've had. _"We left the academy and Luke. We took the Falcon and left in search of Tython, the fabled homeworld of the Jedi."_

 _"We were together."_ Rey began, her throat constricting on the words, the endless possibilities.

 _"In all ways."_

 _Friends. Allies. Lovers._

 _"Rey, that future isn't gone."_

She heard the whisper of hope.

 _Come to me._

 _Come back to me._

 _No._

BB-8 sent an electrical jolt to her leg. Rey glared down at the droid. "I heard you the first time." BB-8 refrained from replying a snarky comment in binary, sensing she might make good on an earlier threat on using him for blaster practice. As the droid's singular red eye roved over the Sith apprentice, she extended her hand, lingering on the faint trace of warmth like from a campfire lingering on the cushioned headrest.

* * *

The grey streaks of dawn spread across the reddish orange sky. Ben had fallen asleep wrapped in an old cloak of Luke's. The woodsy scent of nature had taken him back to the days of his early training, a time he rarely looked back on with fondness. Those were the days when Snoke had attempted to manipulate him, turn him from the path of the Jedi.

His dreams were far from pleasant. Ben shifted upright, noticing Luke was already gone. He found him collecting Porg eggs from a nest in the grassy foothills.

"She's coming."

"I know." Luke wore a cloak of coarse dark homespun cloth over a black tunic and trousers. "She made her approach sometime in the early hours. She was hovering above the planet for a while. I must say she is taking her time."

"What're you going to do?"

"What do you want me to do?" The older man turned on heel, observing Ben's fleeting hope. "You want me to save her…say I forgive her for all the evil she's done. Well, I can't save her, kid." Luke paused, his mouth twitching into a wry grimace. "And take that look off your face. Love isn't the balance, it's right and wrong."

Ben scowled suddenly, fiercely. He had always hated how Luke could read him so well, make him feel like nothing. His judgements hadn't always been right, but he had gotten on without his Master for years. "You're wrong. What if…,"

"You can't save her, Ben. It's time to let her go."

He averted his face and walked off down the path. Luke looked down at the small eggs he had collected and replaced them back within the nest. He went after his nephew finding him standing by the edge of the surf. Ben stared off into the gilded light of the horizon; a dark shape grew in the distance, widening into the dimensions of a fighter craft.

"I'm going to face her. You're not the one who failed Rey. It was me."

"Luke-"

"Go."

He thought of a dozen arguments, none of which could make his uncle relent. Ben watched as Luke unhooked the light saber from his belt. "You're set on this…, you really are." _She protected me…even after you betrayed her._ He began to wonder if that was how little Luke thought of him.

"Nothing could make me change my mind." Luke said grimly, watching as the advanced TIE fighter alighted on a narrow strip below. Ben lingered long enough to glimpse the Sith apprentice, the girl he had known for such a short time, exiting the fighter. Then, he turned and forced himself to walk away.

* * *

Rey could sense them both on the largest land mass. She piloted the TIE Silencer to a rocky plateau, glimpsing the stolen fighter on the opposite side when she glided down within range. Somewhere, Skywalker waited. She could feel the old man's resolve, felt it sing through the Force like a siren's song of destruction.

Ben…Ben was conflicted. He was equal parts light and dark. His Force signature was beautiful, mesmerizing in its shades of grey and violet. Now that Snoke was no more, she had a choice. She could choose to let him go, she could watch as he fought to restore the Republic beside Leia…or she could wait as he married someone, had children. She could corrupt them because of their bond. She could start the cycle anew again in vengeance and jealousy.

Or they could choose their own fate.

"Not this time." Rey muttered, throwing her long hooded cloak on. The sea air was cold, the rampant breeze gusted the longer tendrils of her loose brown hair into her face. BB-8 rolled down the fighter's ramp following her out.

"Stay here. I won't be long." Rey briefly patted the domed head of the droid. "I'll come back, I swear it." With those last words, she set off up the rocky path.

Luke was waiting for her above. Gone was the youthful man in the robes of a Jedi Master. He appeared diminished, old to her eyes.

"I came to end it all."

"I know, I figured it was inevitable. The last of the Sith and the Jedi seeking to destroy the other. Isn't that the way it's always been?"

"I don't know." She had failed to retain most of her knowledge of galactic history.

Luke shifted into Form II, thumbing the switch on the light saber. The forest green light saber hummed to life. "Even if you kill me, there is still one other Jedi alive. Are you going to kill him as well?"

 _Ben._

Rey's body slid into the practiced motion of her old teaching. She ignited her dark blade, the shadow of a rainbow sparkled in the haze of sparks that flew from their connected blades. Skywalker came at her fast, relentless. His footwork matched her evasion, parrying her high strikes with occasional pivoting. Luke was a master of the blade, she saw that now, making up for finesse with power.

It wasn't enough.

Luke could read her movements.

He was attuned to her _Force_ signature.

 _No._

 _No._

She had defeated Snoke, killed the Praetorian guards, the elite of the First Order. She couldn't forget why she had betrayed her Master.

"You said my choice was already made." Rey had switched fighting styles flawlessly. "What if it hadn't been?"

Luke breathed hard, his motions spare. His execution of the light saber forms was exemplary. "I saw your future, the darkness and sorrow you were going to spread across the universe. I needed no other reason."

Her look turned into one of pity. "You should've killed me then." As she spoke, she called out into the Force.

 _Help me, Ben.._

* * *

 _"Ben."_

She could feel him and he could feel her. On the craggy rock above, he faltered beside the mural of the Jedi, turning back the way he had come. Somewhere she was fighting for her life. She was losing he could feel it. Rey was desperate, reaching out through the Force.

 _"Maybe, it's better this way."_

 _"Don't say that."_

 _"One half darkness. The other half light. Maybe you'll have peace, Ben."_

"No!" He turned and ran for the path beyond the cave. Rey had been sacrificed once for the greater good, now he couldn't let his uncle sacrifice her again on his altar of ideals. He had watched her fight alone in the throne room, longing to go to her - fight as one.

Ben reached for his light saber as he slipped and slid down the grassy slope. Verging to the left, he emerged from the rocks in time to see her driven down to the ground. Rey had cast aside her cloak, fighting with the wild, reckless abandon she had learned from him. Luke sliced across her chest, smelting fabric and skin all in the same motion. He had knocked the light saber from her hand.

Rey's hand shot out for it as Luke leveled his open blade to her throat.

"If you kill me, he'll never recover."

"I know and I'm sorry for Leia because of it." Luke prepared to sweep her head from her shoulders. "But, it is a master's duty to smite the evil he has created."

Tears swam in her eyes as she accepted her fate, widening when Ben leapt out with a roar. The blade pierced the older man's back. Luke gasped a soundless cry, his light saber deactivating as it flew from his nerveless fingers. Rey snatched it to her, igniting the blade with a single fluid motion. She ran the beam through Luke's body without hesitation.

The old man crumpled down between them. Once the moment of instinct was over, Ben stared down at his hand wrapped around the saber's hilt. "What have I done?"

"The only thing you could've done." Rey deactivated the light saber. "Ben." She reached out for him. "I can feel your confusion. It's not too late, we can still have everything…we can still be together."

"Rey, I…," tentatively, he took her hand.

-Fin

AN: I've always wondered how the storyline would've played out in an alternate universe where good and evil had switched places. I've read most of the novels that came out in between the movies so there's some emphasis on Phasma, Bloodline, maybe Lost Stars etc…

No flames!

Reviews always loved


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